From the Promised Land
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The Israeli film festival organised by the Hyderabad Film Club was an excursion in the dynamics of family.
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SAY CHEESE A scene from `The Barbeque People'.
Israeli films, over the years, have been different. If in 2002, the films were mystical, last years' films all looked like Tarantino clones - peppered with dark humour and solid doses of casual, brutal violence. This year the films explored the dynamics of family and relationships.
The festival was supposed to open with Turn Left at the End of the World, which caused quite a positive stir at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa last year. Unfortunately there was some problem getting the film, so the festival was kicked off with The Barbecue People. The film directed by David Ofek and Yossi Madmoni won many awards at the Israeli Academy Awards as well as the jury prize for best screenplay at the Mar Del Plata Film Festival.
The film tells the story of a family who come together on the Israeli Independence Day of 1988. A barbeque in the park is the venue for the family to confront ghosts of the past and future. While the father, a musician, feels the true story of his contribution to the resistance has been hijacked, the son is crushed under his failure as a filmmaker. The mother has to deal with a past love while the daughter who is a soldier in the Army, discovers she is pregnant and needs to come to a decision about the new life she carries within her.
There is a sub-plot with a murder, a visit to America to set a record straight - extreme films bordering on pornography and violence, and beneath it all is strong current of familial feeling - father and son, husband and wife, mother and daughter all trying to negotiate the minefield of living up to expectations. The film is brilliant for the way it is put together - there is the Rushomon/Tarantino effect where the events constantly telescope into each other and loop back to the beginning.
The Return from India was interesting for its Indianess and irritating for the same reason - for this is an India of snake charmers and elephants wandering on the streets of Mumbai! There was a lot of Indian mysticism and mumbo jumbo, which might be fascinating for non-Indians but just set teeth on the edge.
Take out of the forced exotica and you have a fairly interesting story of Ben Rubin, an ambitious intern whose internship is cut short when he is asked to accompany the hospital administrator, Abraham Lazar, to India to get bring his ailing daughter back to Tel Aviv. Lazar's wife Dori accompanies them and Ben falls hopelessly in love with Dori. On return from India, Ben pursues Dori like a man possessed and he seems set on course for disaster. Based on a book by Abraham B Jehoshua, Menachem Golan's crafts a film with a distinct hot-house air to it - just wish India had been more believable! And incidentally Shiva in Hebrew means return!
Bonjour Monsieur Sholmi is the story of 16-year-old Shlomi who spends all his time being peacekeeper and cook for his dysfunctional family. His brother is a spoilt wannabe musician while his mum is a harridan who has banished his dad from the home after he had an affair with her best friend. Sholmi likes his eccentric grandfather, who talks to him in French - hence the title. Things turn upside down when Sholmi discovers love for his cute 18-year-old neighbour Rona and his new principal realises Sholmi is a dyslexic math genius. Now Shlomi has to make a choice between his family or joining the group of gifted children. The film is heart warming in an obvious kind of way and the good-looking leads - Oshri Cohen as Shlomi and Aya Korn as Rona add to the eye candy.
The other film Sacred tells the story of Rivka and Meir who are deeply in love with each other and yet after 10 years of marriage do not have children. Meir is being pressured to abandon Rivka and marry a fertile woman. There is conflict and confrontation against the backdrop of the ultra orthodox community.
The festival concluded with a whole lot of student films - from the famous Sam Spiegel School of Cinema. The promise shown was a happy augur of great filmmaking. Organised jointly by the Hyderabad Film Club and the Embassy of Israel, the festival gave a taste of the edgy relativity of emotional bonds.
MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER
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Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
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